How to Use a Mood Tracker With Your Journal

Choose a check-in you can repeat

Check in at roughly the same point each day, such as after dinner or before bed. Vivid uses a two-tap mood grid and offers a prompt when you want to add more than a label.

Track emotion and energy separately

Mood and energy are not the same. A day can feel good and still be exhausting. Track them separately if that distinction matters to you, then add sleep or cycle information only if you plan to look at it later.

Look for patterns, not diagnoses

Review a week before drawing conclusions. Look for repeated timing, routines, or events rather than explaining one difficult day. A Year in Pixels view is useful for seeing longer runs that are hard to remember from individual entries.

A mood journal is a personal record, not a diagnosis or a substitute for professional care.

Protect sensitive context

Vivid stores mood choices and journal entries on your device and in your private iCloud database. Those values and anything you write are excluded from app analytics. App Lock can require Face ID, Touch ID, or your passcode to open the journal.